The Heroes of Westfall

Where the Heroes Encountered the Fog of War

Having defeated the undead, the Guardian Brotherhood listened to the other two remaining doors to see if they could discern what was behind them. The first has a small scurrying, a lot like the kruthiks they had defeated in the entryway. Behind the other, they heard large pounding footsteps of some kind. They chose to go for the kruthiks first.

Entering the room was easy, and inside they found what looked to be an old banquet hall, though the food on the table looked as though it had been sitting out for a thousand years. And, there as a nest of extremely angry kruthiks and the kruthik hive lord.

Boswell, Cherith and Pilindor blasted from the doorway as Ibaka and Sid made their way into melee. A well placed fireball from Boswell took care of most of the hatchlings, and the combined efforts took out the adults quickly. The hive lord was more difficult, but for the Guardian Brotherhood, she was no real match.

They searched the room and found another token with a labyrinth pattern on it, and began wondering what these were, and how many there were.

The next room was also easy to get inside, but its contents were far more interesting. The middle of the room was dominated by an enormous cloud-like pillar, which Boswell (and Sid, incidentally) identified as Fog of War, a deadly obstacle. The room was being patrolled by a large psychic sentinel, who was aided by two shardminds. As the sentinel methodically marched around the fog, the shardminds used the portals on either wall for more maneuverability, and eventually the Guardian Brotherhood realized they could also take advantage of the portals.

It was not an easy fight, but the heroes won in the end, and after burning away some of the combustable fog, they found some more gold and another token.

Where Things Were Not As They Seemed

After fighting through the bats in the first room of Baphomet’s Labyrinth, the Guardian Brotherhood pressed on, letting Ibaka lead the way. His keen minotaur senses helped him navigate the conusing corridors fairly efficiently, and they had only one strange encounter before making it to their first series of rooms – after about an hour of searching through the winding corridors and twisting passages, they came upon a will o’ wisp beckoning them to follow.

They attempted to for a few minutes, but when it became clear that they were just going in circles, they left the small fey to itself and continued on through the maze.

After another hour or so of searching, they found a large door. Through it, they could hear scurrying feet, like those of insects, and decided since it was the first real landmark they had found so far, they would open it and see what was inside. What they found was a nest of kruthiks.

The frenzied insects attacked viciously, but a well-placed burning spray by Cherith and a good placement of Sid’s banner defeated them, and the Guardian Brotherhood was free to explore this new series of rooms.

They listened to each of three doors. The first sounded like more insect scurrying. The second was complete silence. The third sounded like huge metal footsteps claking around in the room. The chose to try the silent room first.

When they entered, the room had five statues scattered around its circumference. In the middle of the floor was a series of translucent membranes with the faces of lost souls trapped underneath. They were begging to be released. Sid decided to oblige them, and the trapped undead promptly attacked the adventurers.

The fight didn’t last long, but halfway through a rust monster made an appearance in the room. It seemed to ignore the combat going on and went darting through another hole only a round later, but it was just enough time to make sure the heroes would be watching their backs.

Where Ibaka and Boswell Figure it Out

Having defeated the patrolling guards outside Bloodsand Arena, the Guardian Brotherhood quickly introduced themselves to Boswell, and then made their way into the stadium’s underbelly. Inside, they found many cages used to hold combatants and other creatures before the fights, where there was a malnourished minotaur huddled in a corner mumbling to himself. They did some first-aid on the captive and he told them that the gnolls had taken many of his people for the fights, and that they were being orchestrated by the lead gnoll Nix, who could not be beaten.

Pilindor and Cherith snuck up to the door to the arena floor and heard the sound of several minotaurs in combat, and the bard was able to corroborate with Boswell that the creatures they were fighting were Dragonspawn – a Firebelcher and a Stormlizard. The party decided not to sit idly by while the innocent minotaurs were forced to fight, and charged into the combat.

They fought the Dragonspawn, while Nix looked on, and just as they were about to win the fight, the large gnoll decided to enter into combat himself. He swung his huge flail at the Brotherhood, doing significant damage with each swing, and the heroes found quickly that he was being protected by some kind of ritual – which Boswell deduced could only be undone by using another ritual. Unable to fight the villain, the Brotherhood fled.

That night, Ibaka was visited by Baphomet in a dream, and told that in order to save the minotaur race, he would have to locate and navigate the labyrinthine temple built in the demon’s honor millenia ago by the earliest minotaurs. The temple was built as a fail-safe in the event that the minotaur people were facing extinction, and only Ibaka was capable of figuring out the maze and unlocking its power within. In addition, he saw a series of five ancient minotaur family sigils, and was given the whereabouts of the temple.

Ibaka lead his companions through the Great Desert to the location of the temple, and they entered. They fought of a large dire bat and its offspring in the entryway, where they were then offered the choice of three doors to go through…

In Which Something Disgusting Attacks the Heroes

After fighting through one room of kobolds, the New Heroes rested up in the Mended Drum, and then headed back down for more action. They followed the trail of the kobolds from before and tracked them to another chamber in the sewers, where they were being ordered to search through piles of garbage by a kobold wyrmpriest and his pet – a bluespawn stormlizard.

The fight was long and difficult, but they were able to fend them off. They searched the bodies of the small creatures and found some gold, as well as a holy symbol of Yeenoghu, the god of the gnolls, which seemed quite odd.

After resting up, they started to head for the exit when they were attacked by something more powerful and disgusting than they had fought before. The tentacles attacked first, knocking their warlock friend unconcious, and the other heroes scrambled to fight off this new creature.

A Leechlife Otyugh. It prevented their healing from working properly and weakened their attacks, but after a grueling encounter, they prevailed, and were able to return home, much more dirty and wet than they had expected.

Where A New Player Arrived

There were patrols wandering around the outside of the arena in a circuit, and in order to get inside, the party new they would have to fight through at least three of the patrols. They waited until on of them was at its closest point to their hiding place and attacked them.

Meanwhile, inside the arena’s holding room, the human wizard Boswell was being held captive. He was able to free himself from his bonds and followed the sound of combat outside, where he joined the fight against the gnolls, and got to show off his own abilities to these mysterious newcomers.

The fight didn’t last much longer, and afterward the Guardian Brotherhood introduced themselves to the mage, and he explained his mission to them – he had been sent by the Arcanum to locate an ancient minotaur structure under the Great Desert.

Where The Guardian Brotherhood Gave In To Indecisiveness

Tavros led the way, and as they crested a large dune, they found the camp below them. It was still populated, but mostly by gnolls. The only minotaurs to be seen were in the stocks or in shackles, and all seemed quite beaten down. They decided to take the day to watch the village and see what would happen.

The first thing of interest they saw was an enormous gnoll, easily twice as big as they normally get, making his way through the camp taunting the prisoners. He carried a large cat-o-nine-tails and whipped the captives as he walked by.

The next thing they saw was a large caravan stopping at the town. It was escorted by several gnolls, and inside was Ibaka’s uncle, Kassador, unchained and conversing with the gnolls. Like the other gnolls, Kassador had grown almost twice as large as a normal minotaur would be.

After debating how to proceed, the Guardian Brotherhood decided to wait it out overnight and see if the caravan was still around. When they awoke it was not there. They went down to the camp and fought through a few gnolls and some of the cacklefiend hyenas from before, but there were no prisoners to be found.

They set out in the direction the caravans tracks led them, and Ibaka deduced that they were headed toward Bloodsand Arena. They made their way there, and were only briefly sidetracked when they were attacked by a pair of Trihorn Behemoths.

Where The Hyenas Are No Laughing Matter

When they arrived, they found themselves in an old, abandoned military fort. It was abandoned, except for a pack of wild cacklefiend hyenas, which immediately decided the heroes would make for an excellent dinner.

They fought off the corrosive predators, and waited while Cherith’s teleportation took a minute or so longer than everyone else’s. They found an old statue of Kord in one of the rooms, but the others seemed mostly devoid of anything particularly interesting.

So, they headed out across the dunes.

With the minotuars leading the way, and Pilindor assisting when he could, it took them about three full days of long, arduous travel before they camped for their final night. During Bharhash’s watch, they were attacked by a large group of gnolls, and two more of their ill, captive minotaurs.

While some of the gnolls tried to hinder them with nets from range, the others ran straight in for melee. The fight was long and tough, but the Guardian Brotherhood won, and left the minotaurs alive on Tavros’ request. They had enough chain to restrain them, and it was a short enough walk from here to the camp that they should be able to control them for now…

Where Ibaka's Past Comes Back to Taunt Him

After defeating the chain devils and chasing off the imp, the Guardian Brotherhood claimed the chest they found in the bone pillar and headed back to the temple of the Raven Queen to rest and figure out what to do next.

Cherith riddled out how to open the chest, by singing the old nursery rhyme titled The Old Man’s Bargain while simultaneously working in the somatic components while the others slept, and inside found a nice suit of armor and a signet ring with Mephistopheles’s symbol on the sides and the name of Myzos on the top. The next morning, the Marut Rahm told them to complete the mission, they needed to destroy the ring (which was a dimensional anchor to the material plane for the devil Myzos) and Ibaka quickly smashed it with his mordenkrad.

The Marut told them the deed was done and they were allowed to return to Westfall.

Their first stop upon returning (after reuniting with Sid) was to head to Sid’s Salty Seaman, which was being held hostage by a pair of powerful gnolls with a chained up and rabid minotaur who claimed to be looking for Ibaka. The Guardian Brotherhood fought them off, saved the hostages, and left the minotaur alive to get information from him.

It turned out the minotaur’s name was Tavros, and he was from a clan that lived close to Ibaka’s in the Great Desert. He said his camp had been attacked by the gnolls and then he remembered nothing else. Concerned with what was going on at his home, Ibaka asked the rest of his friends to come with him and make sure everything was OK.

They quickly researched a way to teleport to the ancient ruins near his home and decided to bring Tavros along to assist them.

Where the Heroes Go Deeper into Enemy Territory

The Guardian Brotherhood pressed on past the ante-chamber in the blacksmith shop where the devils had made their headquarters, into a cave blasted into the side of the mountain walls surrounding Vor Rukoth.

Inside they found a few more War Devils, a nasty Shocktroop Devil (who nearly killed Ibaka) and their legion devil minions. The Guardian Brotherhood hood fought their way through to the back chamber where they found something new alltogether.

In the final, small chamber was a large bone tower, nearly fifteen feet high. At the very top was perched the imp they had seen in the ante-chamber, shouting directions at two Spine Devils and two Chain Devils. When the Guardian Brotherhood showed up, he ordered them to attack, and a fight broke out.

It was quick, but deadly. The chain devils focused on the ranged fighters, trying to tie them down so they couldn’t run from their far reach, while the Spine Devils shot their poisonous quills at the melee fighters, trying to slow them down. It didn’t work for the devils, and eventually they were killed, save for the imp who turned invisible and disappeared shortly into the combat.

As they searched the room afterward, the Guardian Brotherhood found a small, locked chest underneath the bone tower.

In Which Our Heroes Finish One Job and Start a New One

Having rested and recuperated in the steam room, the New Heroes continued farther into the Hearth Grove to clear out the rest of the invading goblins.

They found their way into a small chapel area, where a goblin seemed to be giving some sort of speech, and they quickly dispatched of him and his audience, but not before learning that some of these goblins now had bottles of alchemical toxins to throw at them! Fargrimm, with the help of Verdan’s spiritual companion, held them off while the rest of the group picked them off at distance.

Across the hall, they found the barracks, where several goblins were sleeping. They stormed the room, but not before one of the goblins was able to mount his wolf (who was sleeping at the foot of the bed), and the rider almost made it back out of the Grove, but Silence was able to slow him enough that the group caught up and defeated him.

On their way out, they ran into a returning raiding party, and quickly dispatched them as well.

Once back in Westfall, they collected their money from Birian Iliador and headed back to the Mended Drum to see if there was any more work to be done.

When they got there, they met a Githzerai Avenger named Kelseir, and while getting to know their new friend, the Inn was attacked by a group of kobolds from the basement, which the group quickly dispatched.

The bartender, a solemn man named Talbot, asked if they wouldn’t mind checking the basement for more of the creatures, and they found a grate to the sewer below the city open, which they descended into to make sure all was safe.

As it turned out, there were a lot more kobolds down in the sewer. Led by a kobold rat master, the small creatures attacked the party and nearly killed both Anna and Kelseir before the heroes were able to finish off the small reptilians. They decided to head back up to the inn for a rest before plunging any farther into the sewers.